And We Knew We Were Kidnapped

Earlier this month, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered a stop to this administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. Asylum seekers should not be forced to wait for days, weeks or months at the border when fleeing persecution, violence, and war in their home countries.

The “Remain in Mexico” policy has implications far greater than thousands of people waiting in tent camps or improvised detention centers in Mexico to make their case for asylum. These consequences culminate is stories like this one as told to one of our lawyers by a Cuban asylum seeker.

“I fled Cuba with my husband, my brother, and sister-in-law. A taxi was supposed to take us from Reynosa (border city) to the border but instead stopped at a convenience store. The man there told us we had to pay $400. We didn’t have any money.

Then, the taxi took us to a warehouse with the worst conditions in the world, and we knew we were kidnapped. The mattresses were dirty, and the food was on the floor. There was so much dirt. They locked us in with a chain outside the door. We were afraid our kidnappers would kill us…”

DISCLAIMER: This story contains graphic elements that may be disturbing to some readers.

We did not run because we did not know Reynosa. We thought something even worse could happen to us if we ran.

After about an hour in that warehouse, they took us to another holding place on the mountain. They had us there until around nightfall. A man came to speak to us while we were held at the mountain. He told us: ‘in order to get to Reynosa you have to pay a certain amount…

… We don’t want to kill you. This money is something that everyone has to pay.’ He said he would call our family members for the money; it would be $1,000 per person.

That night, they took us to another warehouse. The third holding place was horrible. We slept on the floor with the dust. We were barely given any food or anything to drink, just a little chicken and water.

The next day “a group of about 5 or 6 men broke into the room we were being held in. I was so relieved when they came in and it was a group of Mexican police. I thought they were there to rescue us. We were all so thankful, we thought we were saved and would not have to pay the ransom. I knew they were police because they wore all black uniforms with Mexican and police identifying markers. They were armed. Their uniforms included the flag of Mexico.

The police told us to shut up and lay down on the ground. Because we all answered the same thing, the police said that we were tricking them. They said ‘you know what you’re doing here.’ Then they said ‘for tricking us, give us the phone number of the person who has you here.

We repeatedly told them ‘we do not know.’ When we could not answer their question, the police got angry with us. They ripped off my sister-in-law’s pants and threatened to rape her with a large stirring spoon. She begged them not to repeatedly. They put her up against the wall.

After terrorizing her, they hit her on the rear, hard.

They also hit my husband.

We were still laying down on the ground per their orders, and with their big police boots, the officers walked on top of us.

The policeman on the phone started to say, ‘look, I have some Cubans here’ and then he started saying different dollar amounts as if he was selling us off. The officer asked us if we wanted to go up into the US or be deported to Cuba from Mexico.

He said we were going directly to the US, to the river. We begged him ‘please, take us to the bridge’ but he refused. He told us that a white truck would come for us, that it would be our taxi. When the truck arrived, we got in and it took us to another house.

In the fourth place we were locked into, we slept on the floor again. The police left us there on the floor, and right after the cartel arrived. We were in the hands of the cartel again. The money from our family did not arrive all at once…

At that point, my family and I were all very sick. We all had fevers. We had been sleeping in the pants and jackets we brought without bed covers night after night. We had not showered in six days. We begged our kidnappers ‘please, leave us at the bridge.’

Finally, they took us to the river. The last thing they told us was that they would take a video of us as we crossed the river so our family had proof that we got across in return for their payment.

Then, we were detained by border patrol and sent to a hielera. In the hielera, we were not able to shower, brush our teeth. We were fed only a little bread and water each day.

I never want to go back to Mexico. It gives me panics. It was so violent. Mexico is not an appropriate place for migrants who are already fleeing violence.